EPA Orders Restoration Of Sandhills Stream

Federal regulators have ordered a Nebraska rancher and county officials to clean up a remote stream after it was deluged with enough sand and sediment to change the shape of the waterway. The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Environmental Protection Agency said the Snake River had been a deep and narrow creek until an estimated 1.6 million tons of sand washed into it, turning a 3-mile stretch into a wide, shallow and sandy waterway. That’s enough sand to fill an area the size of a football field about 540 feet deep. The stream is a popular fishing and canoeing spot in the Sandhills, a desolate region of grass-covered sand dunes in north-central Nebraska.